RCM 1 to 3

Radarsat Constellation Mission

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General

Designation	44322 / 19033A 44323 / 19033B 44324 / 19033C
Launch date	12 Jun 2019
Country of origin	Canada
Mission	Remote sensing
Perigee/Apogee	600 km sun-synchronous
Inclination	97.8°
Period	96.5 min
Launch vehicle	Falcon 9 #80

In Nov 2008, MDA was awared a C$40 million contract to design it by the Canadian government. Is a set of 3 SAR satellites. Launch initially planned in 2010.

Final costs for the federal government project have risen to more than $1 billion from an original estimate of $600 million when it was first announced more than a decade ago.

The RCM bus will be based on the MAC-200 small satellite bus that was first developed for the CSA's CASSIOPE programme.
The MAC-200 bus will be upgraded to accommodate the large, deployable C-band SAR antenna and to increase the power subsystem capacity for the radar payload. New GPS and propulsion subsystems will be added to support the precision orbit maintenance requirements. Upgrades will be made to the bus avionics to support the seven-year mission lifetime.

The system will provide daily images of Canada and neighboring waters, as well as pictures of the Artic upto 4 times a day. Moreover it will cover 90% of the globe daily.

Carries an AIS payload.

Declared operational in Dec 2019.

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External resources

sat-index articles

n2yo.com tracking RCM-1

n2yo.com tracking RCM-2

n2yo.com tracking RCM-3

Technical data

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Specifications

Prime contractor	MDA
Platform	Mac-200
Mass at launch	1450 kg
Dry mass
Dimension
Solar array
Stabilization
DC power
Design lifetime	7 years

7m long C-band SAR. Upto 3m resolution with 20km swath width

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